This month I am joined for a very important conversation with instructor & back-to-back ILHC Pro Classic champion, Ramona Staffeld. Ramona has already been teaching for half of her young life, starting at age 14 and spanning two decades. In that time she’s taught alongside legends Frankie Manning and Chazz Young, and has brought crowds to their feet at international events while performing with Minnie’s Moochers, the Silver Shadows, and recent partners Todd Yannacone and Remy Kouakou Kouame.In our conversation, we talk about her experience starting at such a young age, how music and rhythm are her most important influences, the joy she brings to and receives from dance, and what it’s like putting together routines with different partners. About an hour-fifteen into our conversation, we get into a heavy topic that may be difficult to listen to. Ramona shares her experience of surviving sexual abuse as a young person and how she is coming to terms with that abuse today. This is an incredibly important discussion and I am grateful Ramona has come forward with her story.

Cindy Gallop is a former advertising executive turned startup entrepreneur, consultant, and public speaker.

With a background in brand building, marketing, and advertising, Cindy founded the co-action software company IfIRanThe World and is currently focused on building and funding MakeLoveNotPorn, a venture in the emerging #sextech category, a category in tech that she says is ready for disruption.

Before starting her own companies and growing her consulting and public speaking business, Cindy was an advertising executive and spent almost two decades with leading advertising agency BBH (Bartle Bogle Hegarty) where she first opened the Asia-Pacific, then the North American offices.

Cindy is a believer that diversity drives innovation, Cindy has also been a champion and advocate for gender equality and diversity and she uses every opportunity to challenge the status quo with pragmatic and actionable insights on how to make any industry more diverse and not only in the aspects of gender but also in race, sexuality, disability, and age.

Today on the podcast, I talk to David Kahn, chief instructor at the U.S. Israeli Krav Maga Association and the author of several books on the topic, including Krav Maga Defense. Today on the show, David and I discuss the origins and history of Krav Maga, its philosophy, its fundamental moves, and how to use it in a defensive scenario.

Debbie talks to Seth Godin about how to live in our difficult political moment. “What we have to figure out is how to disconnect ourselves from the circle of fear and from the circle of contempt and even panic and make something that matters instead.”

Nicholas Carr and I discuss why he thinks our utopian future is creepy, how the internet is making us dumber, and why doing mundane tasks that we otherwise would outsource to robots or computers is actually a source of satisfaction and human flourishing. We finish our discussion by outlining a middle path approach to technology — one that doesn’t reject it fully but simultaneously seeks to mitigate its potential downsides.